“As evidence of our continued confidence in the future prospects of the business the board has recommended to return £308 million to shareholders through the combination of an ordinary and special dividend.”

The board is recommending a return to shareholders of £175m which will be in the form of a special dividend of 44.1 pence a share and is subject to shareholder approval at AGM on February 13th 2014.

This is in addition to the regular ordinary dividend of £133 million or 33.5 pence a share based on its existing policy of paying out one third of annual profit after tax.